This disclosure relates to devices, systems, and processes suitable for treating waste streams, and more particularly, for treating waste streams containing a mixture of hydrocarbons and water.
The disposal of hydrocarbon-containing waste streams can pose environmentally significant issues for a wide variety of industries. Water is frequently used at some point along the production process, either in cooling machinery, washing down equipment or playing a crucial part in the manufacturing process, problems occur when water picks up oil. This is particularly true in the oil industry in which the treatment of hydrocarbon containing wastewater generated from drilling oil wells is not only expensive, and increasingly becoming more so, but suitable disposal sites are also becoming scarce. Many techniques for extracting underground oil generate large volumes of a hydrocarbon/water waste mixture that requires treatment or disposal. The disposal of this waste mixture is complicated by the volume of waste generated through most extraction methods and the lack of locally available disposal sites.
There is a need, therefore, for an efficient and effective method and system for treating a hydrocarbon/water waste mixture on a large scale while being sensitive to the surrounding environment.